|
|
About Equal Justice Works
"Equal Justice Works (formerly The National Association for Public Interest Law) was founded in 1986 by law students dedicated to surmounting barriers to equal justice that affect millions of low-income individuals and families. Today, EJW is the country's leading organization engaged in organizing, training and supporting public service-minded law students, and is the national leader in creating summer and postgraduate public interest jobs.
EJW's Student Organizing department works with a national coalition of 162 law student chapters at more than 85 percent of all American Bar Association-accredited law schools. EJW supports law students committed to social justice by strengthening the efforts of their public interest groups, helping to reduce financial and institutional barriers to accepting public interest employment and advocating for law school programs that sustain public interest aspirations. Additionally, EJW student chapters raise millions of dollars to fund thousands of public interest summer internships.
EJW's National Service programs include both summer and postgraduate initiatives designed to create opportunities to cultivate a lifelong public service commitment. Since their inception, these AmeriCorps-funded programs have enabled law students and lawyers to work in traditionally underserved communities increasingly in need of legal assistance. Thousands of low-income persons have been served through efforts ranging from projects designed to combat homelessness and domestic violence to those that seek to create jobs and affordable housing.
EJW's Equal Justice Fellowships is the largest postgraduate legal fellowship program in the country. With a multi-million dollar matching grant from George Soros' foundation, the Open Society Institute, EJW is engaged in a very successful "Invest in Justice" campaign that calls upon law firms and corporations to fund more opportunities for the next generation of public interest lawyers. In 1997, prior to the OSI grant, NAPIL had 23 fellows. Today, thanks to OSI and the support of more than 130 law firms, bar associations and corporations, EJW has 147 extraordinary lawyers working in communities locked out of the justice system."
-www.equaljusticeworks.org (EJW website)
|
|
|
|
